mmarconi Offline Upload & Sell: On
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douglooose and MJJPhotos
I went through the same gyrations your experiencing now. As far as I know this issue first started surfacing with the D7100. When the problem became unbearable for me I started using the 500 with a D300 I had at the time, after a while, started seeing the problem with it to. Overtime more people stated having the same issue with AFS lens and other bodies. Lots of reported instances with the 300 AFS II.
There was a lady in Florida that had the same problem as mine with the same equipment. She sent camera, tc and lens to Nikon for repair. I actually spoke with her after the repair and she stated all worked great when she got them back. So I sent in the same equipment. The D7100 was only a couple of months old at the time. Anyways $400 later everything worked great. I think the major item they replaced on both mine and her's was a flexible circuit board in the lens. They also made repairs to my D7100, it was under warranty.
Six months later I start seeing the same random AF failures although much less frequently. A couple of months later AF went out completely. I sent it back to Nikon along with a lot of complaining. Long story short the AFS motor had to be replaced. According to them they gave me a break on the repair, still bye-bye $700.
My guess (just a guess) is these problems are early symptoms of AFS motor failure. Anyways I haven't used the 500 much since the motor was replaced, but so far it seems to preform as new. When I was shopping for a 300 2.8 I really wanted the AFS II version, not only because of price but also weight. My experience with the 500 and all the similar complaints posted around the web made me shy away from the AFS II version and go with a VR version.
Good luck with your equipment.
Mike
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